July 30, 2014

the
Greek Council for Refugee, the Hellenic League for Human Rights, the
Network of Social Support to Refugees and Migrants - DIKTYO and the
Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees cordially
invite you to attend their Press Conference on Thursday, 31 July 2014, at 12:00pm, in the Venue Room of the Athens Bar Association at Akadimias Str. No 60.

The Press Conference concerns theunprecedented
decision of the Prosecutor of Piraeus' Marine Court to archive the case
and essentially close the judicial investigation into the
responsibility of the Coast Guard staff for the tragic boat wreck near
Farmakonisi island on 20 January 2014, during which 8 children and 3
women – all refugees from Afghanistan – drowned after being intercepted
by the Greek Coast Guard.

The decision of Piraeus' Marine Court Prosecutor has been approved by the Prosecutor of the Military Court of Review.

Notwithstanding
the statements made by representatives of UNHCR (Athens), who contacted
the survivors the day after the tragic event, and notwithstanding the
accusations raised by the surviving parents both publicly as well as in
their subsequent testimonies before the competent Prosecutor, the case
was archived. The prosecutor unequivocally accepted the statements
provided by the involved coast guard personnel in their defence – a move
unprecedented at this stage of the procedure. The Prosecutor also
attached more weight to the initial victim statements registered by the
Port Authority at Leros Island, even though these were taken in the
absence of suitable interpreters and an investigation on precisely this
matter is currently pending.

We consider that the
responsibility of the Coast Guard staff involved in the event has not
been adequately investigated; we consider the unconditional acceptance
of the version of events provided by the Coast Guad to be hasty and
ill-founded; we also consider unjustified the refusal to accept the
truth of the statements made by the survivors both in public, before the
media, as well as before the Prosecutor and the UNHCR representatives,
who were never cross-examined.

We firmly believe that archiving
a case during which 11 women and children lost their lives, practically
approves of the pushbacks carried out in the Greek seas, perpetuates
the impunity of the Coast Guard involved and shows a complete lack of
will and effort to decrease the number of migrant deaths in Greece's and
Europe's external borders.